Delta coaches Luis Meza, center, and Clayton Curtis congratulate 152-pound senior Hunter Brasfield after an upset win sent him into the 4A Region 4 semifinals.
Hotchkiss senior Joe Boyle controls Ruben Chagoya of Basalt to win a 3A Region 1 title. He is one of 7 Hotchkiss state qualifiers.
Hotchkiss and Paonia boys will square off this week on the basketball courts. Both are 6-4 in league play.
Delta senior Brooke Taylor scores two of her 12 points against Summit after grabbing an offensive rebound.
Paonia 195-pounder Tyler “TK” Kendall sets Rangely’s Drew Collins up for a pin.
Paonia freshman Bo Pipher sets TJ Richard of North Park up for a pin in Saturday’s regional semifinal round. He is one of 13 Paonia wrestlers headed to state!
Surrounded by coaches and his dad, Conner Beard signs Letter of Intent to play football for the University of Nebraska Kearney.
Hotchkiss' Jacobe Galley signed a Letter of Intent to play football and study engineering at Colorado Mesa University.
Hotchkiss senior Cody Bartlett signed his National Letter of Intent to run cross-country for Hawaii Pacific University.
Photo by Wayne Crick Delta 132-pounder Shane Anderson works on a move during practice prior to last week’s opening-night match with Montrose. Anderson won in Montrose and went 5-0 at last weekend’s Maverick Duals at Colorado Mesa University.Not since 2002 had the Delta Panthers beaten Montrose High School on the wrestling mat. That streak ended last Thursday with a convincing 59-14 win for the Panthers.
Delta got off to a tremendous start in lower- weight competition by winning the first five matches. Jayden Chynoweth (106), David Brown (113), Hayes McCracken (120), and Tylon Cordova (126) all won by pinfall. Shane Anderson scored a major decision, 14-2, over Michael Maas at 132.
A loss by Kodie Komives at 138 temporarily slowed down the Delta express train. Delta won the next four matches by Derek Horn (145 - D), Daniel Brown (152 - F), Hunter Brasfield (160 - PF), and Cordell Stroud (170 - PF).
Kyle Collins was beaten at 182 with Alejandro Medina winning a major decision at 195 and Lino Ortiz winning by forfeit at 220. Marcus Garcia fell to the Indians' Jesus Casillas, 2-1 at 285.
According to head coach Clayton Curtis, "We were on fire! Our JV wrestlers did an excellent job winning nine out of 11 matches wrestled and seven of those were by pin. We came ready to wrestle! David Brown and the rest of the lower weights got us out to a great start giving us a 22-0 lead."
For Curtis, the match of the night came at 160 pounds where Brasfield took on Montrose's Marcus Velasquez who is currently ranked second at 160. Curtis noted Brasfield wrestled a very smart match and won in dominating fashion.
Summing up the performance, Curtis touted his team's efforts. "The boys put in a lot of work this off-season and we see that it's paying off now. This is the first time that we have beaten Montrose in a dual since the 2002 season." Montrose was ranked seventh in pre-season polls in 4A.
Delta's Panthers went 2-3 at last weekend's Maverick Duals on the campus of CMU. The two wins for Delta were against Grand Valley (48-30) and Coal Ridge (66-15). Losses were to Grand Junction (45-13), Central (39-28) and Fruita (53-15).
Two Panthers, sophomore David Brown and senior Shane Anderson, made it through the day without a loss. Chynoweth had a very respectable 4-1 in the 106-pound division.
Curtis was somewhat disappointed at his team's performance at CMU. "The main thing is we weren't consistent like we were against Montrose on Thursday. Some guys would wrestle great one match and then not so great the next match. That's something that we will need to improve if we want to make some noise at Regionals and State. We had a chance to win other duals if we had just been more consistent."
This week's wrestling schedule has the Panther varsity team hosting the Delta Invitational on Saturday (Dec. 8) while the junior varsity travels to Rifle.
